Fergeson: Did Obama pressure Gov. Nixon to keep the National Guard out?

Posted on November 25, 2014 by Paul Mirengoff in Crime, Ferguson shooting, Holder Justice Department, Law Enforcement, Obama administration

Did Obama pressure Gov. Nixon to keep the National Guard out?

I noted here that the National Guard wasn’t in Ferguson last night, and I wondered why. After all, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon had declared a state of emergency in the St. Louis area — the potential emergency being the impending grand jury decision — and had mobilized the National Guard. In addition, the mayor of Ferguson had requested the Guard’s presence.

Yet, the National Guard was nowhere to be seen in Ferguson. It should have been. The local police force was not up to the task of preventing the vandalism, looting, and arson that followed announcement of the grand jury’s decision.

Why wasn’t the National Guard deployed? Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder believes that Nixon was pressured by President Obama into not sending the Guard to Ferguson. Appearing on Fox News, Kinder asked:

Where were they [the National Guard] last night? The law-abiding citizens and business owners and taxpayers of the St. Louis region have the right to ask this governor to answer some questions.

Here’s my question that the governor must answer: Is the reason that the National Guard wasn’t in there was because the Obama administration and the Holder Justice Department leaned on you to keep them out?

I cannot imagine any other reason why the governor who mobilized the National Guard would not put them in there to stop this before it started.

I can. Nixon may be incompetent or he may be soft-headed. But Kinder’s explanation — that Obama and/or Holder pressured Nixon — seems at least as plausible.

Via NRO.